Autobiography: The Life and Times of Frederick Douglass

Frederick Douglass was born into slavery and witnessed first-hand it’s effects on a person. He best expressed this in his autobiography, Life and Times of Frederick Douglass, in which he described his own fight to become independent from his southern upbringings. And through hard-work, diligence, determination, and defiance, he proved to be more than just property, more than just a slave.

Douglass was a hard-working individual, not adverse to simple work, “requiring strength rather than intellect.” Even though he “broke down,” and his “strength failed,” he still got back up, “feeling it was never do to stop working” regardless as to whether or not that work was done in the blistering summer sun or before a writing desk.

Douglass showed a great deal of diligence and determination in his trek to seek his Master after being struck down by Mr. Covey. A passage from his novel: “After lying there about three quarters of an hour, I nerved myself up again, and started on my way, through bog and briers, barefooted and bearheaded, tearing my feet sometimes nearly every step; and after a journey of about seven miles,…I arrived at my Master’s store.” If he hadn’t been able to force himself further through perserverance alone he wouldn’t have accomplished his goal.

Still, Douglass’ first act of defiance toward an authority figure was what displayed the beginnings of a change in his character. “From whence came the spirit I don’t know – I resolved to fight, and suting my action and resolution, I seized Covey hard by the throat; and as I did so, I rose.” In his need for restitution he found freedom, and it propelled him forward.

Douglass utilized all of these hard-won qualities to help rid himself of the oppression of slavery. First, of the mental slavery he had suffered by educating himself, and then, the physical form itself by rebelling against his Master.

In his solemn refusal to give up, he personally purchased his own freedom, life, and liberty. He learned to be a man by refusing to accept the life he was granted, and instead, changing it, himself, and many others to come after.